“Samsung Electronics Co Ltd., the world’s top maker of memory chips, said it may buy flash memory maker SanDisk, which is valued at $3.2 billion, in a deal that could reshape a struggling industry,” Marie-France Han and Nathan Layne report for Reuters.
“An acquisition of SanDisk would expand Samsung’s market share at a time when prices for flash memory, used in such products as digital cameras, cell phones and music players, are falling sharply. The deal would also reduce Samsung’s licensing costs by assuming control of SanDisk’s popular technology,” Han and Layne report.
“Analysts said an acquisition could shift the balance of power in the flash memory industry away from Japan’s Toshiba, which trails Samsung in the flash market but plans to nearly double its chip production capacity in partnership with SanDisk,” Han and Layne report. “‘Samsung buying SanDisk would mean big damage for Toshiba,’ said Yoshihisa Toyosaki, head of IT research firm J-Star Inc.”
Full article here.
[Attribution: MacNN. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]